The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-11-05
Computed for The ArkGnsoH TrapeIey. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

In the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, faded ink on parchment, etc., is re- stored by means of a solution of hy- drosulphide of ammonia.
 A prize of $500 has been offered for the production of the best practical elementary text book of tropical agri- culture specially applicable to Ja- maica, manuscripts to be submitted to the government of Jamaica on or be- fore August l, 1888.
 Prof. Tumas, European physiolo-
 st has shown that vomiting is the result of irritation of space in the meduiia obiongata about one-fifth of an inch long and one-twelfth wide, and believes that the br9ins of rumi- nants, rodents and other non- vomiting animals lack this ''vomiting center"
 GEOGRAPHICAL HAZINEss.-A sur- prising ignorance in geographical mat ters prevails even among people of culture. Many examples of this have been lately collected by Colonel Sir Charles Warren. In one case an edu- cated surveyor could not free himself of the idea that Paris was north of London, and another located the west end of London toward the eastern coast. Out of thirty well-instructed men, from eighteen to twenty years old, about eighteen were under the impression that while the sun rises in the east, the stars rise in the west.
 SOUNDING BY SoUND.-On some parts of the coast of Sumatra and the neigh boring islands, writes MT. W. Mattieu Williams, the fishermen test the depth of the sea, and also the nature of the sea bottom, by the noises they hear on applying the ear to one end of an oar of which the other end is plunged in the water. At depth of twenty feet and less, the sound is crepitation, similar to that produced when salt is thrown on burning char coal; at fifty feet it is like the ticking of watch, the tick tack being more or less rapid, according to whether the bottom is entirely of coral or alternately of coral and mud, or of sand. If the bottom is entirely of sand, the sound is clear; if of mud, it resembles the humming of swarm of bees. On dark nights the fishermen select their fishery grounds according to these indications.
 KNOWLEDGE IS HEALTH.-At the recent hygienic congress in Vienna, Herr von Pettenkofer urged the inn portance of more general teaching in the public schools of the influence of air, water and soil on the public health. What scientific hygiene has accom- plished was illustrated by the case of London, where, in the seventeenth century, with less than 100000 in- habitants, the average death-rate was Az per ,000 per year; while now, with a population of 4,000,000, it is less than 2l per 1 ,00O. That is, science has more than doubled the average life of the Londoner. In the Crimean war, the French lost 95,000 men, of whom only 10000 were killed, while 75,000 died from disease. In the Franco German war, the effect of hygienic teaching in the military schools was already apparent, for out of total loss to the German army of 40,881, there were only 12,282 deaths from disease.
 A TREE COVERING MANY ACRES - The banyan tree is one of the remark able products of the East Indies. It's life is usually begun from a minute seed dropped by some bird upon some other plant, such as the wild date, which it crushes as it grows. Every branch from the main body throws out its own roots, which, constantly thickening, descend to the ground sev- eral yards below, where they strike in, increase to large trunks, and send out new branches from their tops, which in turn repeat the process. The bo- tanic garden at Calcutta contains a great banyan, now about a century old, which has a parent trunk AZ feet in circumference, 232 root-trunks ranging from few inches to foot around, with vast leafy crown S57 feet in circumference. Near the hill fort of Wysatgarh, in the Bombay presidency, is a banyan whose top in 1882 measured l ,5S7 feet in circumfer- ence. Other specimens greatly exceed even this prodigious size, single trees being said 10 cover thirteen acres. The famous banyan under which AL exander the Great stopped, on the banks of the Nerbudda, once sheltered 1000 men, and when seen by Forbes generation ago, though much reduced in size hv fiOods was afi1l uaarlv 3 000.